Pushing Beyond Your Limit to Grow

Now it's funny to write something about pushing beyond your limits because what it really means is finding another limit.  When you go beyond this 'limit' you only prove that the 'limit' was not a limit, but instead, something that you created for yourself so as to protect yourself from pushing too far and finding yourself drained.  We put those limits up for a reason.  We put them up to protect ourselves.  We make sure that we don't go beyond the limits because we set the perimeters up as a safe zone.  Going beyond the safe zone means going into the unknown territories... or the danger zone.  Some of the fences (or limits) we put up are good and keep us from making bad decisions, but some of those fences can deprive us from going out.  Little by little, we break down the fences and build new ones, and that's how we grow.

We all start out as a baby, we are confined and limited.  We can't move by ourselves and so we are watched over by our parents who control where we are and what we do.  We're limited in our movement and so we're confined in a certain area.  As we grow from being a baby to becoming a toddler, we are still bound by the rules set by our parents, but our 'territory' has grown and now we can move freely and instead of a crib, we have a house.  Instead of being moved from one place to another, we can use our own two feet to take us from one place to another.  As we grow from a toddler to a child, our territory grows yet again.  Now we're allowed to play outside on our own.  More responsibility is given to us, and we break our limits even further.  From being a child, we become a teenager, where little by little, where we now can stay out later and go off on our own.  We'll still need to communicate with our parents on where we'll be and what we're doing, but we have more freedom, and we start going places and making our own decisions.  Finally, from being a teenager, we become adults, where we make our own choices and we go where we want to.

Little by little, our limits have been broken and made new, our territory and responsibilities have grown.  When we grow, our limits grow with us... but the funny thing is that the opposite is true also.  When we push our limits, we grow as individuals.  When we push ourselves outside of our safe zone, we grow.

Until the 12 hour race, I have not run 62 miles before.  The longest I've run was 50 miles and to me, doing 62 was a limit breaker.  Looking back at my experiences, I've seen the paths I've taken to get to where I am now.  It's really nice to see the change I've undergone to become the runner that I am.  Limits are set up to protect you, but when you break that limit and push yourself just enough... it can push you to grow.